Dyehouse unloader



United States Patent M 3,521,803 DYEI-IOUSE UNLOADER Arnold Jade and Gordon Gauvin, Amsterdam, N.Y., assignors to Fownes Brothers & Co. Incorporated, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Nov. 4, 1968, Ser. No. 772,909 Int. Cl. B6511 29/18 U.S. Cl. 226-108 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention is directed to an unloader for a fabric rope being discharged from a processing unit and includes a carriage that is reciprocable along one path and a constantly driven draw roll mounted on a frame that is supported by the carriage and is oscillatable along a path at a right angle to that of the carriage travel in order to deposit the fabric rope in a cart as a series of zigzag folds in uniform layers. Means are provided to adjust both the stroke of carriage reciprocation and the degree of oscillation of the draw roll frame in order to conform the deposition of the fabric rope to the horizontal dimensions of the receiving cart.

THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to new and useful im provements in fabric folders or plaiters and particularly seeks to provide a novel unloader for dyehouse kettles by which a continuous fabric rope may be withdrawn from a kettle and deposited in a transfer cart in uniform layers.

Heretofore, many types of folders or plaiters have been developed that are capable of filling a transfer cart with a fan-folded or zigzag folded fiat open Web of fabric as it is continuously delivered from a processing unit. Such folders or plaiters have generally been of the types that operate only in one axis, either through oscillation of a folding guide roll or by reciprocation of a pair of guide rolls between which the web passes. These types of folders have been adequate for use with fiat webs where the folding or plaiting need take place back and forth along a single axis. However, such prior devices are not capable of automatically loading a transfer cart with uniformly distributed layers of fabric rope because the folding of the rope must be effected along two axes in order to avoid a non-uniform filling of the rope Within the transfer cart.

An unloader constructed and operated in accordance with this invention overcomes the deficiencies of prior known folders or plaiters.

Therefore, an object of this invention is to provide a novel unloader for either a wet or dry continuous fabric rope that is capable of depositing the rope into a transfer cart as a plurality of uniformly distributed Zigzag layers.

Another object of this invention is to provide an unloader of the character stated which includes a transverse ly reciprocable carriage for controlling the rope deposition along one axis and a continuously driven feed or draw roll mounted on a frame that is oscillated along an axis at a right angle to that of the carriage.

Another object of this invention is to provide an unloader of the character stated that is particularly adapted for use in connection with dyehouse kettles of the type in which the fabric rope is discharged from a fixed position.

A further object of this invention is to provide an unloader of the character stated that is mounted on tracks extending transversely across the discharge ends of a plu rality of processing units and can be positioned at the discharge end of any selected processing unit.

A further object of this invention is to provide an un- 3,521,893 Patented July 28, 1970 loader of the character stated in which the transverse reciprocation of the carriage is automatically controlled in synchronization with the oscillation of the draw roll and in which the stroke of reciprocation and the arc of oscillation may be adjusted to conform to the interior horizontal dimensions of the transfer cart to be loaded.

A further object of this invention is to provide an unloader of the character stated in which reciprocation of the carriage is effected through an endless belt and reversible motor drive provided with adjustable spaced abutment clamps on the belt that are adapted to actuate a fixed reversing switch as they respectively contact an operating element thereof.

A further object of this invention is to provide an unloader of the character stated that is simple in design, rugged in construction and economical to manufacture.

With these and other objects, the nature of which will be apparent, the invention will be more fully understood by reference to the drawings, the accompanying detailed description and the appended claims.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of an unloader constructed in accordance with this invention;

FIG. 2 is a right end elevation thereof; and

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of a receiving cart and shows the pattern of rope deposition therein resulting from operation of the unloader with the cart in a fixed position.

Referring to the drawings in detail the invention, as illustrated, is embodied in a fabric rope unloader that includes a reciprocable carriage 5 mounted on wheels 6 that engage a pair of spaced parallel rails 7, 7 that are suspended from the dyehouse overhead parallel to the fronts of a lateral line of treating kettles.

An endless rope belt 8, at least coextensive in length with the rails 7, is positioned thereabove and is supported at one end by an idler sheave 9 and at its other end by a sheave 10 that is driven by a high torque, low speed, reversible motor (not shown).

The carriage 5 is connected to the lower flight of the rope belt 8 by detachable ropes 11, 11 that depend from positioning clamps 12 suitably spaced in pairs in alignment with each dyehouse kettle. When the unloader is to be moved from its operative association with one kettle into operative association with another kettle, it is only necessary to detach the ropes 11 at the first location, move the unloader along the rails 7 to the next location and at tachthe ropes at that location to the carriage.

The lower flight of the rope belt 8 also carries a pair of adjustably spaced abutment clamps 13, 13 adjacent the driving sheave 10. The abutment clamps 13 respectively contact the activating lever 14 of a fixed position reversing switch 15 to reverse the driving motor of the sheave 10 and thus reverse the direction of the belt 8. The spacing between the abutment clamps 13 is set to conform to the transverse dimension (parallel to the rails 7) of the carts to be loaded. Obviously, when a cart having a different transverse dimension is to be used, the spacing between the clamps 13 will be adjusted accordingly.

The carriage 5 supports a pair of depending spaced parallel arms 16, 16 having their upper ends pivotally connected thereto as at 17 along an axis parallel to the rails 7. A generally spool-shaped draw or unloading roll 18 is mounted on a shaft 19 journalled in suitable bearings mounted on the lower ends of the arms 16 and is adapted to be driven from a reduction geared motor 20 mounted on top of the carriage 5 through sprocket and chain connections indicated at 21.

The draw roll 18 and its supporting arms 16 are adapted to be oscillated in a path normal to that of the rails 7 through a pair of crank disks 22, 22 mounted on a shaft 23 driven from the motor 20 through sprocket and chain connections indicated at 24. A pair of connecting arms 25, 25 have their upper ends pivotally connected to the crank disks 22 as at 26 and their lower ends adjustably pivotably connected as at 27 to the arms 16.

In operation, the unloader is positioned in alignment with the fabric rope discharge of a processing unit and the pull ropes 11, 11 of the rope belt 8 are connected thereto. A receiving truck 28 (see FIG. 3) is positioned beneath the unloader, the abutment clamps 13, 13 on the rope belt 8 are adjusted to conform to the transverse dimension of the truck and the connections between the arms 16 and 25 are adjusted to provide a throw of the draw roll 18 equal to the front to rear dimension of the truck. A fabric rope A is led from the processing unit over the center of the draw roll 18 and down into the bottom of the truck adjacent one end thereof. Then the unloader is started so that the carriage 5 is slowly reciprocated by the rope belts 8 and the arms 16, 16 are slowly oscillated to impart a compound movement to the fabric rope A and deposit it as a uniform layer of zigzag folds on the bottom of the truck. Successive layers are similarly built up in the truck until it is filled. As each layer is completed movement of the carriage 5 is reversed so that the next layer will be properly deposited.

It will be understood that the speed of rotation of the draw roll 18 will be adjusted so that the peripheral speed of its center section corresponds to the discharge speed of the fabric rope from the processing unit.

It is of course to be understood that variations in arrangement and proportions of parts may be made within the scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. An unloader for receiving a continuous rope of material from a processing unit and depositing same in a receiving cart as a series of uniform horizontal layers each of which contains a plurality of zigzag folds including, a pair of spaced parallel rails, a carriage mounted on said rails for reciprocation therealong, means for reciprocating said carriage, a frame depending from said i carriage and pivotally connected thereto for oscillation along a path at a right angle to the path of travel of said carriage, a continuously driven draw roll mounted adjacent the lower end of said depending frame, and means for oscillating said frame as said carriage is being reciprocated.

2. The unloader of claim 1 additionally including means to adjust the stroke length of reciprocation of said carriage.

3. The unloader of claim 2 additionally including means to adjust the arc of oscillation of said frame.

4. The unloaderv of claim 1 in which said carriage reciprocating means includes an endless belt positioned above said carriage in parallelism with the path of travel thereof, means for connecting said carriage to a flight of said belt, reversible means for driving said belt, and spaced means carried by said belt for reversing said belt driving means at the end of each stroke of reciprocation of said carriage.

5. The unloader of claim 5 in which-the spacing between said spaced means is adjustable whereby to adjust the length of stroke of reciprocation of said carriage.

6. The unloader of claim 5 additionally including means to adjust the arc of oscillation of said frame.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,467,693 9/1923 Scribner 19163 2,684,107 7/1954 Schultz 19163X 2,962,772 12/1960 Draving et al. 19163 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,167,784 4/1964 Germany.

ALLEN N. KNOWLES, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 19-163 

